


That Old Saw

by khooliha



Category: Jurassic Park (Movies), Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Genre: Gen, mental manifestation, silly idea taken seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-28
Updated: 2015-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-06 13:19:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4223211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khooliha/pseuds/khooliha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dr. Ian Malcolm has been hiding something, but not for much longer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Old Saw

The rain was really coming down, drenching the street and the houses and Ray Carter in ways that none of them were accustomed to. Ray wanted to pull his phone out, to check again if Dr. Malcolm had gotten his texts, but he left it jammed in his pocket, pretending it was safe there from the rain. He decided to invest more energy in shaking with rage - hopefully that would help keep his core body temperature up and it felt more active than shivering. 

When Ray got Malcolm's door open he felt pretty luck for multiple reasons. Any escape from the deluge was a win and it was warm inside, warmer than his advisor's home usually was. "Dr. Malcolm?" he called into the darkness, suddenly worried that he was just semi-breaking into a home, an uninvited and angry guest. A noise upstairs caught his attention and Ray crept up them, splitting the difference between sneaking and respect. 

"Dr. Malcolm?" he half whispered on the landing. 

"In here," came his advisor's voice, drifting out of his office. The room was dark, but Ray didn't hesitate - Ian Malcolm was known for some eccentricities, and sitting in the dark in your own home wasn't that high up the list. 

"You saw my texts, right? You saw the news?" Ray slid easily back into anger, the strangeness of the moment mostly gone. 

"I did." 

"What gives them the right? Who do they think they are? Hammond isn't even in the ground a month before-"

"This was Hammond's idea. All of this was always Hammond's idea." Malcolm sounded oddly distant, not his normal wound up self. Certainly not in the face in the announcement of Jurassic World. Where Ray expected a flurry of activity there was just silence. No, not quite. There was a soft rustling and low chatter, like a small animal, and a slight coppery tinge to the air. 

"You don't think he learned anything from the first park? The aftermath?" 

"He learned plenty. He was a dangerous man in the clarity of his convictions. Combine that with people less… dedicated to his vision surrounding him and a new park was guaranteed." Malcolm shifted slightly in his chair, a shadow moving in the dark. Leather creaked and something else chirped. "The bigger surprise is that it took this long." 

"Even the predators?" Ray was trying to needle him. After all, a number of those predators had personally tried to kill Malcolm. 

"Especially the predators. You know what happens when there aren't predators in a system." Ray didn't, not exactly, but he was a math major, not some ecologist. "You get a boom in prey animals, which hurts plants, increases disease and parasitization. All the deer ticks, all the Lyme disease… A pack or two of wolves could clear the east coast right up." Ray could make out the rueful headshake in the darkness. "No, you need predators. The lynx, the hare." Malcolm trailed off, but Ray could see his finger in the dark, tracing a wave graph through the air. It was a shadow of something he recognized. 

"They're not going to let their dinosaurs eat each other." 

"Now where did you get that idea?" Where was the anger? The energy? 

" Fine, whatever, I don't give a fuck about predator dynamics and I don't think they do either. Even if they do they’re going to get shut down asap. There has to be something we can do." 

"Like what Ray? I've been telling people for years and no one has heard me." He chuckled softly. "I really should know better." 

"You can't just give up!" 

"I nearly died twice - if that won't get people to listen I'm not sure anything will." Malcolm's voice still had a strange, distant quality. He whispered to something in the dark and there was a muted clink of a plate on wood. The copper smell intensified. 

Ray had had enough and the focus of his anger shifted slightly. "What the hell are you even doing sitting in the dark alone?" 

"I haven't been alone in a very long time." 

Ray groped for the wall, flicking a switch. A floor lamp's amber light spilled across the room. Some of the revealed sights were familiar - books were scattered, opened to random pages, books about dinosaurs and ecology, the usual wreckage when something happened with Ingen or dinosaurs. There was a plate on the desk in front of Malcolm, a hunk of something like raw liver oozing in the center of it. That explained the odd smell. A gobbet of the meat hung from the fingers of Malcolm's right hand. And in his lap-

In his lap was an animal, covered in dark, glossy feathers, but the neck wasn't right, it couldn't be a crow or something… When the creature stretched its serpentine neck out to delicately snap at the liver Ray got a look at its face - bright black eyes and a lizard snout instead of a beak. It gulped down the raw meat with a satisfied chattering and fluffing of feathers. Then it turned to consider him and Malcolm looked up to do the same, left hand still absently stroking the dinosaur in his lap. 

The dinosaur. 

"Where the fuck did you get that?" Ray was backing away even as he asked it. It wasn't that large but it shouldn't be here. It shouldn't be anywhere near here or near Malcolm and he was _hand feeding_ the thing. 

"It's always been here," Malcolm said, but Ray mostly missed it since the creature took that moment to hop out of Malcolm's lap and start across the floor towards him. It came in little hops, glinting eyes always focused on him, chattering all the while. 

"Dr. Malcolm we need to get out of here." 

Now his advisor stood and for a moment the dinosaur turned back to the lean figure, almost looking for a cue. "Where do you think I can go? Where haven't I gone to get away from this? No." He shook his head seriously, but not unkindly. "I can't imagine getting out of here Ray. Can you?" 

A crash of thunder got Ray moving again and he turned and bolted down the stairs. Behind him the scratch of claws and a calm, measured footfall made sure that he didn't stop. Still, he hesitated right before crashing into the front door. Dr. Malcolm was a good advisor, a good man. He had to at least try. He turned around and could just make out Malcolm on the stairs. 

"Dr. Malcolm… Ian. Come with me. Get away from that thing. It'll be alright." 

"Ray, you just don't get it. It _is_ alright. You know how the saying goes…" Outside a car drove by, headlights spilling into the home. Ray saw the light catch on Malcolm's glasses, and on the dark eyes of the dinosaur at his feet, both of them tilting their heads like a curious bird, synced with each other. And the light caught another dozen sets of eyes in the darkness, spread out across the landing, shifting restlessly in the dark. Then the car was gone and all Ray could focus on was the heavy weight of soft chittering and roughpad feet and claws on hardwood. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," Malcolm finished and all Ray could hear was a rush of small bodies down the stairs and his own blood and he turned and ran desperate into that stormy night. And the creatures followed. 

**Author's Note:**

> Have you ever been watching The Lost World: Jurassic Park and simultaneously thinking about Forbidden Planet and then gotten really invested in the idea of Ian Malcolm subconsciously manifesting dinosaurs in an effort to deal with emotional complications that he is not willing to face with his conscious mind? Well. I have.


End file.
